Games controls are often categorized as great, mediocre, or bad, but rarely to we call them fun. After all, for most games you shouldn’t need to pay too much attention to the controls. But how you control your ship is everything in Vikings Row!, I-play’s latest creation that has you rushing down rapid rivers in search for loot.

Vikings Row! goes a little like this: You must use swipe-based commands in order to steer your Viking ship down the river. Along the way, you must avoid whirlpools, jutting rocks, and other enemies in order to make it to the end with at least one Viking left alive. Along the way, you must also pick up enough coins to advance to the next level and finish the level in the allotted time.

Controlling the ship is a fun and effective experience. You swipe down on the screen with two fingers to move the ship forward, up with two fingers to halt and go backwards, and left and right with one finger to turn. You can also do a sharp turn by rotating two fingers on the screen in the direction you want to go. It takes a couple levels to get the hang of it, but you’ll be rowing with precision in no time.

In Soviet Russia, Vikings pillage you!

Vikings Row! includes 48 levels across six themed worlds. To keep things fresh, some levels require you to pick up time boosters that stop the clock or invincibility power-ups that allow you to smash through obstacles. Our only gripe with the levels is that they go from quite easy in the first few worlds to brutally difficult in the later levels, to the point where the slightest mistake is likely to cost you the game.

Also, we’d like to see an endless mode in the future. Something along the lines of Ninjatown: Trees of Doom’s timed mode where you need to keep collecting time boosters. While 48 levels will last you quite a long time considering how difficult they get, an endless mode would be even better for quick play sessions.

However, we still recommend Vikings Row! due to how great a fit it is for the iPhone’s touch screen. Now, go loot and pillage before the Vikings loot and pillage you!

AppSpy takes a look at AG Drive in their latest video review. Giving it top marks and only dinging it for not having multiplayer. If you like “swooshy swoopy futuristic racers” this one might be the one.